


Talk About It

by sweeterthankarma



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pre-Relationship, S2E14: The Hills Have Eyes, Takes place after the bathroom scene, aka what we never get in canon, teenagers being teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-01 11:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18334187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweeterthankarma/pseuds/sweeterthankarma
Summary: “She might like girls,” is all Josie says, offering hope as easy as if mentioning that the grocery store down the street might be open.“With her fashion sense, it’s likely,” Cheryl responds, voicing her spiraling thoughts aloud. “A flannel, a leather jacket and combat boots? Surely she’s not straight.”Josie shrugs. “She looked good.”“She looked gay,” Cheryl corrects.





	Talk About It

**Author's Note:**

> While I'm not the biggest fan of Riverdale in any sense— actually, the show boils my blood in a lot of ways, but I'm trying to be contained here so that the fandom doesn't come for me lol— there's something about Cheryl and Toni that keeps me heading back to YouTube to watch all of their scenes. It's probably just how deprived I am of any decent sapphic content in the media and how beautiful Vanessa Morgan and Madelaine Petsch are, but anyways! I wish Riverdale accurately showed the teenagers as teenagers, so I ended up writing this quick piece. I'm not sure how close Cheryl and Josie are since I haven't watched the show since season 1, but I remember enjoying Josie as a character so I threw her in here lol. This fic takes place after the bathroom scene with Cheryl and Toni and before the movie theater scene.

    “I did something stupid today,” Cheryl announces suddenly. She and Josie had been doing homework, finishing math problems rather steadily after deciding to leave their phones in the other room, and so far it had been a smart choice. Josie is  _ almost  _ irritated by Cheryl’s interruption since she was on her last question, but though her tone is fierce, her voice is quiet, almost nervous. She gets up from the floor, moving to the bed where she grabs a pillow to hug against her chest, and Josie notices the way her eyes flit towards the door, checking to see if they’re alone— or, more likely, that Penelope isn’t lurking around.

    “Story of my life,” Josie responds with a slight laugh, but then she closes her algebra textbook and gives Cheryl her full attention. “Spill,” she demands. 

Cheryl talks fast, faster than Josie’s ever heard her. “So, I’m sure you couldn’t forget this morning’s encounter with the Serpents and the new girl, the transfer, Toni? So she followed me into the bathroom and tried to do this weird thing where she, like, tried to read me and tell me that I was in a lot of pain...”

Josie raises her eyebrows at that, looking weirded out, and Cheryl feels suddenly validated. “I know, right? So weird.”

She takes a breath then and finds that the words keep tumbling out, casual confessions desperate to be told no matter how scary it is, no matter how sparse the time has been that she’s even been able to face how she feels. 

    “So, I’m not gonna lie to you, I think she’s really pretty and I’m really jealous of her makeup, honestly, and anyways, I called her sapphic as an insult but I shouldn’t have said it because I’m  _ sapphic  _ but I don’t even know if she likes girls, and besides, if she did, me saying that definitely didn’t give her the right idea.” There’s a beat, and then she says, “about me, you know?”

Josie reacts as nonchalantly as Cheryl expects her to, and the tightness in her chest releases just a little bit at the way Josie  _ doesn’t  _ pull a disgusted or even shocked face. 

    “She might like girls,” is all she says, offering hope as easy as if mentioning that the grocery store down the street  _ might  _ be open.

Cheryl decides she has nothing to lose at this point.

    “With her fashion sense, it’s likely,” she responds, voicing her spiraling thoughts aloud. “A flannel, a leather jacket  _ and  _ combat boots? Surely she’s not straight.”

Josie shrugs. “She looked good.”

    “She looked  _ gay,”  _ Cheryl corrects. Heat flares up in her gut at Josie’s words, and though she knows she doesn’t mean them  _ that  _ way, she’s almost grateful that she said it, that it leads the way for the emotion that Cheryl feels inside of herself. Now, she knows, at least, that she’s feeling something at all towards the new Serpent girl, even if just curiosity. It’s been so long since she’s felt anything at all towards a girl. 

    “Good and gay,” Cheryl says moments later, once she’s snapped back to the present. “The two are interchangeable.”

Josie is thinking alongside her, like the sexual orientation of Riverdale High’s latest transfer student matters in the slightest to her. This is why they’re best friends, Cheryl thinks. Or, at least friends. Cheryl isn’t so sure she’s ever had a best friend...not since Heather. And that’s a kind of friendship that she doesn’t even want to think about.

    “Are they?” Josie asks, amused but not denying it. “Interchangeable, that is?”

    “Yes, I’m walking proof,” Cheryl says with a casual flip of her hair.

    “Cheryl, Toni...oh, I’ve got it!  _ Choni.”  _ Josie grins. “I could ship it.”

Cheryl laughs, loud and hearty and happy. It’s been a while since she’s been happy like this, since she’s been happy and had a crush and felt...what’s the word? Oh yeah, hopeful. It’s a refreshing change of pace. 

As Josie chants the newly created ship name, Cheryl grins into her pillow. Yeah, she and Josie are definitely best friends. As for Toni...she’ll see.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, let me know in the comments or at my Tumblr blog under the same username, sweeterthankarma! :)


End file.
